REQUISITOS DE ORDEN TÉCNICO

Before we turn to the problems concerning the completion of the dictionary, it is necessary to sum up its main features, which follow from the short description given in the first chapter and should be preserved in the new volumes as well. Foremost, the dictionary is entirely the creation of its author. Although the history of lexicography shows that many lexicographers rely on their predecessors, Benešić is a bit different in this respect. He used very few existing sources and consulted them only for the sake of comparison. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, despite some comparable works, Benešić's dictionary is typologically unique in Croatian lexicography. Secondly, Benešić's biography reveals a man who relied on his own linguistic knowledge and intuition. Emphasising that he was compiling a dictionary of a literary language which does not have any normative pretensions but only aims to give the examples of usage in literary works and shape the meaning of the words accordingly, Benešić relied on his instinct and experience in dealing with linguistic and cultural matters. For that reason lexicographic solutions in The Dictionary are mostly his own. The way in which Benešić's interests intertwine throughout his entire work has been most strikingly described by Tomislav Sabljak:

To Benešić, a word is not something static – language moves like an actor on the stage and it is important to develop continuously that impression of balance, harmony, rhythm, word order, accent, feelings and ideas as a unique stage expression. The

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Since 2008, as agreed with the supervisor of the project of Benešić’s Dictionary completion, in the new volumes, starting from the entry S, complete bibliographical details are provided for every quotation.

experience of theatre and stage helped Benešić immensely in his work on dictionaries. Besides already mentioned practical meanings, Benešić also sought poetic characteristics of words, their metaphysical sign (Sabljak 1994: 92).

In addition, Benešić's Dictionary describes the language used by Croatian authors in the period between the Illyrian movement and the mid-twentieth century. That is why we can find in it the words which distinguished writers of that time but which contemporary dictionaries, compiled according to lexicographic norms, do not contain (see more in Nikolić-Hoyt 2010: 83).

Finally, the work methodologically comparable to Benešić's Dictionary appeared in England some two hundred years earlier and further development of English lexicography was based on it – Johnson's dictionary. Its main principles are still applied, especially in the Oxford English Dictionary. Moreover, a common feature of both Benešić and ohnson, the well-foundedness of every lexicographic solution in the language itself, i.e. in the real examples (Nikolić-Hoyt 2010: 81), is also a characteristic of modern dictionaries which are compiled according to the principles of corpus lexicography. Benešić paid special attention to the selection of quotations, i.e. the examples of usage:

Compiling the dictionary of literary language is not just about entering certain individual words.The most important is to show a particular word with its usage, within a phrase in which that word has a central position. The dictionary will record the word with the attire in which the author had dressed it. It will record the phrase, not just a naked word (Benešić 1985: XXIV).

… because words only come to life in quotations, and the word in a quotation is the focus of the idea put forward in it. The word alone, with the explanation of its meaning still does not give the idea of its specificity if that word is not presented within some, albeit longer quotation (Benešić in Sabljak 1977: 11).

Relying therefore solely on his corpus glosses, Benešić only presented those meanings for which he had valid verification. If, for instance, a word in the corpus appeared only in figurative sense, Benešić recorded just such secondary but verified

meaning. Hence in his Dictionary we find certain meanings, frequently

metaphorical and metonymic, which words can have in a specific context. Nevertheless, reading The Dictionary and analysing the examples, we quickly notice that Benešić's approach to the treatment of data and the use of metalanguage lacks methodical quality and consistency.

(1)

kudjelja, f., konopljene niti (u Tordinca metaforički: žena).

[tow, f. thread of hemp (in Tordinac metaphorically: woman).]

Dade mi čitav tovar kudjelje, da je ispredem [He gave me a whole pile of a tow to twine] (Šenoa). – »Otkada u Hajdukovićevoj kući kudjelja zapovijeda, a mač sluša? Naruga se zlobno Ivan« [»Since when in Hajduković’s home does a tow command, and a sword listen?« Ivan mocked viciously] (Tordinac).

(2)

kaciga, f. šljem (u Polića u prenesenome smislu: redar).

[helmet, f. casque (in Polić in a figurative sense: guard).]

U ovo krvavo, prokleto doba, kad hodaju ljudi u kacigama i noževi bliješte [In this bloody, damned era, when people walk in helmets and knives glint] (Krleža). – Mrko ga gleda kaciga zakona, ne zna za proljetnu šalu [The helmet of the law looks at him moodily, he knows no spring prank] (Polić).

(3)

atmosfera, f., parokrug, ozračje, obično u prenesenom značenju: okolina.

[atmosphere, f., the air round the Earth, usually in the transferred meaning: environment, ambience.]

... da si ne ojadi ugodne atmosfere, u kojoj je sada živjela, ostavi ona svoga muža ne odgovoriv mu ni riječi [In order not to spoil the atmosphere in which she now lived, she left her husband without answering a word] (J. Kozarac). – Polemike i svađe, što ih je izazvao prvi broj, uzburkale su još više atmosferu [Controversies and disagreements, which were the result of the first number, stirred the atmosphere further] (Bartulović). – Sva je atmosfera bila nabijena strahotama [The entire atmosphere was charged with horrors] (Kaleb). – Ali ne ona tišina poslije bure i kiše, kad je zrak svjež i čist, niti ona pred oluju, kad je atmosfera puna elektriciteta, već ona vajna tišina puste sobe, iz koje se netko iselio [But not such silence as after the wind and rain, when the air is fresh and clear, nor the silence as before the storm, when the atmosphere is full of electricity, but this sham silence of an empty room from which somebody moved out] (Kolar).

(4)

baterija, f. [battery, f.]

više topova (4–8) iste vrste [several large guns used together].

Tom je baterijom Ivan u odlučivi čas najvećom hladnokrvnošću obližnju jednu

bateriju rusku demontirao [With that battery had Ivan, at the decisive moment and with the utmost composure, dismantled a nearby Russian battery] (Bogović).

u prenesenom smislu [in the transferred sense].

Društvo se nabrzo razigra, osobito kad su zagrmile prve baterije šampanjca [The group started to play in no time, especially after the thunder of the first batteries of champagne]

(Becić).

(5)

ćuskija, f., željezna motka, ovdje u prenesenom značenju (prost, pijan kao batina, kao

ćuskija).

[jemmy, f., a long narrow piece of metal, here in the transferred meaning (rude, drunk

as a jemmy).]

Vi se đaci rugate oficirima, da su ćuskije i šta ti još sve ne znam [You, schoolboys, mock the officers, calling them jemmies and God knows what else] (Matoš). – Više puta napijem se kao ćuskija i ni đavola mi nije [I often get drunk as a jemmy and nothing ever happens to me] (Kosor).

(6)

isprašiti, u metaforama [dust off, in metaphors]:

išibati [flog, lash somebody]

Uhvati dakle ljuti Bjesomar bijesa za rog, podigne ga u zrak i ispraši ga dobro brezovačom [Terrible Bjesomar took the fury by horn, lifted him up in the air and flogged him well with broom] (Brlić-Mažuranić).

prekoriti, ispsovati [reprimand, scold]

Dandolo je grofa molio, da oprosti slučajnu nepriliku, koja izvire iz neznanja gubernatorova – a samoga gospodina Taddea dobro isprašio radi njegove prevelike brige na krivu mjestu [Dandolo begged the count to forgive the unintentionally caused trouble which stemmed from his ignorance – and he scolded Mr Tadde for his disproportionate and misplaced care] (Nehajev).

Such examples allow us to conclude that Benešić approached and dealt with every entry and quotation(s) which exemplify its meaning individually, using different labels and terms which he chose arbitrarily as metaphorically in example (1), in the transferred sense in the examples (2) and (4), usually in the transferred

meaning in (3), here in the transferred meaning in example (5) and in metaphors in

example (6). We should also mention that Benesic indicated in the explanation of certain entries which writer uses the word in the transferred sense, as in examples (1) and (2), but we do not find the same method elsewhere. Hence, the examples, suggest two conclusions. Firstly, consistency of lexicographic treatment and uniformity in the selection of labels are not the characteristics of this Dictionary. Secondly, despite his lack of lexicographic consistency, it is evident that Benesic noticed and separated figurative meanings, indicating that there is some sort of semantic exentesion at work, most frequently metaphors. In this therefore lies the difficulty of reconciling two aspirations that those who are working on the dictionary's completion have: the successors need to finish the dicitionary the way the author would have done but they also need to avoid the mistakes of an inconsistent treatment. In the next chapter we will show potential solutions to the completion of Benešić’s Dictionary.